Method of packaging ice cream



May 26, 1925.

E. W. LABOMBARDE METHQD OF PACKAGING ICE CREAM Filed Sept. 1].. 1924 V15 N 717%. :2 /5 MA A A :YHWVEARDZT- Patented May 26, 1925.

UNITED STATES I ELIE w. nanomnnnnn, or NASHUA, NEW nmrsnmn.

METHOD OF PACKAGING ICE CREAM.

Application filed September 11, 1924. Serial No. 737,081,.

To all whom it may come-m:

Be it known that I, ELIE W. LABOMBARDE, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Nashua, in the county of Hillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Packaging Ice Cream, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the production of packages of commodities such as ice cream in measured quantities, and the object of the invention is to enable paper boxes to be quickly and accurately filled or loaded, which boxes will be leak-tight and of a, more economical type than those most commonly employed heretofore.

Paper or pasteboard boxes or pails most commonly used at present, especially those which are filled in stores and carried home,

by individual customers, are of tapering shape so they may be nested for the purpose of savin space when they are shipped or stored. oxes of such' shape can not be Y made otherwise than partly or wholly by hand or by very expensive machines which are slow in production. And it is essential that boxes which are to be used for carrying ice cream from a store to ones home shall have bottoms and side walls as leak-proof as possible. To attain the best results in this respect, it has been necessary heretofore to make the boxes in open or set up condition with their bottom flaps adhesively secured. Therefore they could not be made in flat folded condition and so shipped or stored. And this is true whether they are of tapering form or are of uniform diameter from end to end, either square or cylindrical.

in carrying out my invention I preferably employ paper boxes of the type illustrated and described in my application Serial No. 725,542, filed July 12, 1924, the blanks for which are rendered moisture-proof and of glossy appearance by a heavy coating of wax such as parafiine, said blanks being furnished to users in fiat folded condition and then set up by the users as wanted. Then, in further carrying out my invention, each set up box is simultaneously filled and its bottom joints tightly closed by means of a loader which, at a single operation, deposits.

just the amount of ice cream to fill the box while acting on'the bottom joints of the box to prevent them from being forced open by the pressure of said material.

Of the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a broken out perspective View of the loader containing a mass of material such as ice cream.

Figure 2'is a broken out perspective view ofbthe loader discharging the material into a ox.

Figure 3 sectional view illustrating the action of the bottom edges of the walls of the loader on the bottom joints of the box.

To avoid confusion,- reference numerals.

are employed for the loader and reference letters for the box.

The loader has thin side walls 12 the bottom edges of which are preferably bevelled as at 13 to' facilitate entrance into the box. The tops of the walls 12 are connected by a bridge piece 14 to which is rigidly secured a hollow stem or tube 15 having a vertical slot 16 having a notch 17 the purpose of which will be presently explained. A. handle 18 is secured to the upper end of the tube 15, and two finger pieces 19 are secured to the opposite sides of said tube near the bridge piece 14:.

Mounted to slide in the tube 15 is a rod 20 having a finger piece 21 at its upper end 1 projecting through the slot 16 of the tube, the lower end of said rod extending through a plate'22 and having a, disk 23 at its lower end. Said disk 23 is illustrated in Figure 1 as of diamond shape for a purpose explained hereinafter. The plate 22 is of a size .to just fit the transverse space inside the walls 12 to act as a plunger, while the connection between it and the plunger rod 20 permits the latter to rotate when required for purposes presently explained.

The

is of the type illustrated in the application hereinbefore referred to, to which application reference may be had, if desired, for its complete details. For present purposes it will be sufiicient to explain that the box comprises side walls 0 having foldable bottom flaps Z2, 0, and d, the latter having a tucking flap 6 (Fig. 3), and foldable top flaps f, f, and g, the latter having a tucking flap h. The aps at both bottom and top are substantially alike except that the b, c, which extend from opposite walls of the box are long enough to extend in overlapping box which is preferably employed i are usually only longenough to enable their condition entirely across the bottom of the box, while the similar flaps f, at the top end edges to meet. The bottom tucking flap 6 extends past the side edges of the two long flaps b, a, and'up against the inner face of one of the side walls a, as shown by s Figure 3. It is this last mentioned joint pushed down as pint capacity as will be exp sults in holding the at which leakage is most likely to occur.

The loader illustrated is supposed to be of one pint capacity, but the notch 17 enables it to be used for loading boxes of halfained. I ,In operation, assuming that the box .to be loaded is of pint capacity, the user grasps the handle 18 and pushes the loader into a mass of ice cream as far as it will 0. The

lunger plate 22 then automatical y rises. Then upon lifting the loader from the mass,

it will withdraw a quantity of ice cream which just fills the leader as indicated by Figure 1. The loader, with its contained material,'is then. quickly transferred to a box. the bottom flaps of which have been tionary in the box w Ie the walls-of the loader are being drawn .up and entirely out ensure tight closing of the bottom joints at ger plate is holding of the box. The action is such that'while the lower edges of the walls of the loader the beginning of the operation, the drawing up of said walls as described, while the (plunthe ice cream own,

leaves the material packed tightly against said joints, leaving no air spaces.

Figure 2 illustrates the walls of the loader as artli ed in the box, and it is to be under:

7 weodpac I sto that continued pressure of the fin er pieces 19, 21, toward each other will fina y effect complete withdrawal of. said walls,

leaving a'solid mass of ice cream in the box, with thetop marked or embossed b the de-' s" of the disk 23 on the under si e of the erplate. The form of said disk may be other than diamond-she. 'or may be anything to indicate the goo employing the invention. I

Afterthe filling, and the withdrawal of the de y p a s M], athe plunger. plate 22 stawithdrawn, leaving theice cream "consisting in first material, then inserting the filled loader in -a container havin interfolded bottom rof the-dealer i v signature.

may be closed in a man'nenthe same as oinployed when closing the bottom flaps prior to ifilling.

If the loader isto be employed for filling f a box of half-pint capacity,-the finger piece 21 of the plunger rod is, before pushing the loader into a mass of ice-cream, swung into notch 17 so that the plunger plate Wlll occupy a position half way of the len the Walls 12. It is to enable this to be done that the connection between the rod 20 and gthof the plunger plate 22 is so made that the rod can rotate as hereinbefore mentioned. To a load a half-pint box with a half-pint of ice cream, the operation is the same as hereinbefore described except that-before beginning to eject the ice cream from the loader,-

piece 21 isfirst swung out ofthe the finger notch 17.

My invention providesfor furnishing-ac curately measured quantities of ice cream to customers, in leak-proof boxes which are sanitary, the filling of the boxes being efi'ected in much less time than when employing a spoon or-dipper as is now most commonly used. It enables boxes of low cost to be em-;

ployed, and ensures complete, tight closures of the bottom flaps so as to avoid crevv ices. And the packing of 1 the ice cream against the bottoms of the boxes ensures retention of the bottoms in condition to prevent exudation or leakage.

,I am aware that many devices have been designed for lifting ice cream .in measured quantities and discharging it intofreceptacles or onto-dishes, but so far as I am aware none have been designed or proposed for use in the manner hereinbefore described.

Having now described my invention, I

claim: v

, 1. The method of roducing a leak-tight package of plastic materialf containedin apaper box having interfolded bottom joints,

consisting in mechanically holdin the bot-.

tom joints of said box tightly c osed, and

while'said joints are so. hel forcingthe said material into said box and tom tll ifireof; h d .f. k 4

.2. em'et o o pa'c agin filling a 10a or with said ice cream,v

against the b t Ill tions and then wi drawing the loader w 1le In testimony holding. the "said 'material pressed against i theb'ottom of the container.

whereof I have aflixed lay-u 

